Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis is ordered to pay $100,000 to a same-sex couple eight years after she was jailed for refusing to grant them a marriage license.
- Kim Davis refused to grant marriage licenses to two same-sex couples in Kentucky in 2015
- District Judge David Bunning awarded one of the couples $100,000 in damages on September 13.
- Davis was convicted in 2022 of violating couples’ constitutional rights
A US federal jury has awarded $100,000 in damages to one of the same-sex couples who sued a former Kentucky employee for refusing to grant them a marriage license.
Kim Davis ended up spending five days in jail for denying the couples’ request in 2015.
On September 13, District Judge David Bunning awarded $50,000 each to David Ermold and David Moore in damages. The second couple, James Yates and Will Smith, received no damage.
Davis, a former Rowan County employee, believed marriage should only take place between a man and a woman.
Last year, Bunning found her guilty of violating the couples’ constitutional rights.
Kim Davis (pictured in the photo) must pay gay couple $100,000 after refusing to grant them a marriage license in 2015
Davis (left) was successfully sued by David Ermold (right) and his partner David Moore, who were each awarded $50,000 in damages on September 13.
David Ermold (right) and David Moore (left) were awarded $100,000 in damages after Davis refused to issue them a marriage license
Bunning said at the time of his ruling that Davis “cannot use his own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while carrying out his duties as an elected official.”
Michael Gartland of Del Cotto Law Group, who represented Ermold and Moore, said USA TODAY: ‘My customers couldn’t be happier.’
Davis’ lawyers, Liberty Counsel, said she plans to appeal the ruling.
“We look forward to appealing this decision and taking this case to the United States Supreme Court,” they said in a statement.
“Kim Davis led the way in Kentucky where she won religious freedom for all employees. Now is the time to extend this freedom to everyone.
Associated Press reported that the U.S. Supreme Court previously declined to hear an appeal from Davis’ attorneys in the case in 2020.
The case first gained national media attention after Ermold and Moore showed up at Davis’ office to apply for a marriage license with news cameras in tow.
When she refused, Moore asked what authority Davis had to deny them the right to marry.
“Under the authority of God,” she replied.
Davis was released in 2015 after her staff issued marriage certificates without her name.
She has already been married four times and had twins out of wedlock.
Davis began to identify as a devout Christian after her fourth marriage failed.
The case first gained national media attention after Ermold and Moore showed up at Davis’ office to apply for a marriage license with news cameras in tow.
Davis has been married four times previously and had twins out of wedlock. She began to identify as a devout Christian after her fourth marriage failed.
Davis has been married four times previously and had twins out of wedlock. She began to identify as a devout Christian after her fourth marriage failed.
It stopped issuing all marriage licenses a day after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges.
The deeply devout Christian also shed light on her religious beliefs and said she owes her life to Jesus Christ.
“After my pious mother-in-law died more than four years ago, I went to church to fulfill her final wish,” she said in a 2015 statement.
“There I heard a message of grace and forgiveness and surrendered my life to Jesus Christ.
Davis was parodied on an episode of “Saturday Night Live,” but championed by Kentucky conservatives in support of her.
She lost her bid for re-election as county clerk in 2018. Ermold also ran unsuccessfully for her seat. The seat was ultimately won by Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr.
